This invention relates generally to the use of software keyboards or keyboard images that are displayed in connection with processor-based systems.
In a number of cases, it may be desirable to display an image of a keyboard for enabling data entry. For example, a separate keyboard peripheral may not be available. In connection with wireless devices, it may be impractical to include a keyboard for size and power consumption reasons. Data entry may be facilitated by displaying a keyboard image and allowing the user to select key images corresponding to the characters and information the user wishes to enter.
In one case, data entry areas may be provided in a variety of software situations including Internet web pages. Data may be entered by enabling the user to select a pop up keyboard image. The user then selects the desired keys to enter the required data.
The selection of the key images may be done using a touch screen. The user may tap the desired key images or may use a stylus to select the key images. In other cases, a mouse cursor may be positioned over the desired key images and those images may be mouse clicked on to enter the desired text character-by-character.
In many cases the size of the overall screen display is such that the imposition of the keyboard image may obscure important data displayed on the display screen. For example, the actual data entry areas may be obscured by the keyboard image itself. This obstruction complicates text entry since the user may be unable to clearly see the data entry area to determine what text should be entered.
A number of techniques have been proposed to overcome this problem. One approach is to use a semi-transparent keyboard image. However, the generation of such a keyboard image may be complicated in some cases and the semitransparent keyboard image still, to some degree, obscures the underlying text. In another approach, the keyboard image may be of such reduced size that the likelihood that it would obscure data entry areas may be reduced. However, a deficiency in this approach is that the keyboard image may be sufficiently small in such case that data entry is relatively difficult. And again, even though small, the keyboard image may obscure the data entry area. In still another possible approach, the entire data entry field disappears and the associated display is replaced entirely by a keyboard image. Again, this complicates information entry since it is not then known where to input the information or what information to input. In still another possible approach, the keyboard image may be moved to a corner or an edge of the display screen to reduce the likelihood that the image obstructs a text entry field. However, again, the keyboard image may be too small or may still obstruct data entry areas and too much of the context around the data area field may be obscured. This context may be needed to understand what information must be entered into the data entry area.
Thus there is a need for a better way to facilitate the entry of data using keyboard images on processor-based system displays.